As NBA trade deadline approaches, the Magic prepare to face the Bucks

MILWAUKEE — With the NBA trade deadline almost 48 hours away, Orlando Magic players and coaches are hoping to bring some of the momentum they built at Amway Center before the All-Star break onto the road.

The Magic will open the unofficial second half of their season tonight against the Milwaukee Bucks, a struggling team that the Magic have beaten twice this season.

“Collectively, it’s just about growing our chemistry, growing our defensive discipline and you would like to say ‘make a playoff push,’ ” Arron Afflalo said after the Magic finished their shootaround at Bradley Center.

A playoff push seems unrealistic. With 28 games to go, the Magic are 7½ games behind the Charlotte Bobcats for the eighth, and final, playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

The trade deadline, which arrives Thursday at 3 p.m., is the more pressing issue for the Magic, not that players can do anything about the approaching deadline, anyway.

Power forward Glen Davis and point guard Jameer Nelson continue to be mentioned most in trade rumors.

Davis would provide a contending team with an additional low-post presence on defense, while Nelson would give contending teams insurance at point guard. Davis and Nelson have extensive playoff experience.

Nelson wants to remain with the Magic for the long-term. He has said repeatedly that he and his family are happy in Central Florida, and he has not asked team officials for a trade.

Nelson arguably is the Magic’s most popular player, but the Magic traded J.J. Redick last season at the deadline, and at the time, Redick was perhaps the team’s most popular player.

Redick was approaching free agency. The team wasn’t going to re-sign Redick at his asking price, and team officials didn’t want Redick to leave via free agency without the franchise receiving an asset in return. On Feb. 21, 2013, just minutes before the 2012-13 season’s trade deadline, the Magic dealt Redick, Gustavo Ayón and Ish Smith to the Bucks for Tobias Harris, Doron Lamb and Beno Udrih.

The situations for Nelson and Davis are different than Redick’s situation was.

Nelson, 32, is under contract through the 2014-15 season, but if a team waives him before the middle of July, it would owe him only $2 million.

On one hand, trading Nelson would force prized rookie Victor Oladipo into a more central role in running the offense, and the Magic could use the remainder of the season to evaluate further whether Oladipo can be a point guard at the NBA level. Trading Nelson likely also would enhance the team’s chances in the 2014 NBA Draft Lottery.

Yet, on the other hand, trading Nelson would involve some risk.

The lottery is a crapshoot, and the Magic (16-38) aren’t going to catch the Bucks (9-43) for the worst record in the league.

Would bettering the Magic’s lottery chances by a few percentage points be worth disrupting the team’s chemistry?

Nelson arguably is the most respected veteran on the team and is the team’s most natural leader. Plus, if the Magic were to trade him, that move could significantly hurt the team’s offense and make the final months of the season especially difficult. Losing game after game after game — possibly by large margins — potentially could hurt morale.

Davis, 28, is under contract through the 2014-15 season, and that season is fully guaranteed for about $6.5 million.

Magic General Manager Rob Hennigan and Assistant General Manager Scott Perry are back in Orlando, just as they were at this time last season.

In the meantime, the game against the Bucks is approaching.

“I think tonight is a big game for us, especially coming out of the All-Star break,” Harris said. “You find out a lot about teams around the league in this game.”